It is not difficult to see how posting in a Sasha Shulgin thread might have repercussions for American citizens. For instance, Mr. Opportunist, since both you and I posted in the same comment thread, even though I have no idea who you are and never will, our names are linked in some NSA database. How this can bite you in the ass (albeit, currently at a low probability level) is already public knowledge:
http://www.washingtonpost.com/...

Must not get sucked into comments. Must stop wasting time on Slashdot.
OK, this comment does not count, and maybe I could read just one more story---it may expand my mind in unexpected ways, after all.
But I will get to work! I will close this tab and not post this comment.
Damn. Hey, I'm kind of hungry. Anyone up for going out to lunch?

nickrjsmith writes: I want to ask slashdotters a question. Where is your task bar? Mine is along the right hand side, top to bottom. I do this as it provides me with more vertical space for browsing docs, webpages etc. After all, it's rare I need axtra space left / right on a wide screen. Where is your placed? Could this be a poll?

esocid writes: 42-year-old Michael Allison of Illinois could spend the rest of his life in prison for recording police in public. He faces five counts of eavesdropping, a class one felony. The Illinois Assistant Attorney General has joined the case and told the judge that citizens do not have the constitutional right to record police.Link to Original Source

I wish I had your problems, then, because mine not only never got solved quickly, but never got solved. As for my attitude being "dated," well, it's dated exactly two weeks ago, which was the last time I was foolish enough to try to get support from Microsoft.

tanveer1979 writes: Indian students duped by the dodgy Tri-Valley university in California have been fitted with GPS radio collars by the immigration authorities.

Scores of Indian students were caught in a scam where the university violated immigration norms and illegally got the students F1 visa and immigration status. To keep a track on the movements of the students, the authorities put GPS radio tags. This is spiraling into a major diplomatic row between India and USA, with the former calling the practice inhuman and unwanted.Link to Original Source

Luckily, we have numerous texts and hundreds of years of scholarship. There is good consensus on what is and what is not authentic. This is not some sort of code like in an Enigma machine; you don't need a decoder ring. RTFA.

I would like to say that I was one of those who said that there must be something more there when reading Plato, but this news has me stunned. If this holds true, it will be an epochal discovery. Me, I can't remember the last time we had one of those in philosophy. Just hope it won't turn out to be cold fusion.

Julie188 writes: On Tuesday, Microsoft was awarded a U.S. patent for "portable applications." The description of this innovative technology? Running an executable file from a flash device. Does this, or does this not, sound an awful lot like running an application from a thumb drive instead of loading it onto your computer? A Microsoft spokesperson offers this clarification: "The patent relates to portable applications that can be executed from a portable memory device (such as a USB flash drive) without impacting the configuration of the computer. The patent is not directed solely to running an application from a flash drive but to running an application from the flash drive without altering the configuration of the computer."Link to Original Source